Album Reviews ALBUM REVIEW: Exile, Look Out, Heart Country-soul mischief, a motel-room mystery and a spiritual from J.P. Pennington’s childhood: the classic Exile lineup finds fresh uses for its old mixture. By Jared Ingersol · 6 min read
Album Reviews ALBUM RECONSIDERATION: Exile’s Kentucky Hearts Three No. 1 singles, five musicians and one concentrated sound: the record on which Exile’s country conversion became an identity. By Jared Ingersol · 6 min read
Album Reviews ALBUM RECONSIDERATION: Exile’s Don’t Leave Me This Way Before Exile’s country breakthrough, this 1980 pop album sent songs to Alabama, Henry Paul, Sheena Easton and Michael Johnson. Its Nashville connections began in the writing credits. By Jared Ingersol · 6 min read
Album Reviews ALBUM REVIEW: Kim Carnes - Chasin' Wild Trains After thirteen quiet years, Kim Carnes made a record with nobody left to tell her no — twelve songs of her own, cut with the friends who helped write them, on a label named for the family dog. The little girl on the cover never doubted it would sound like this. By Jared Ingersol, Generation Country · 7 min read
The Dirt Band Edition EP REVIEW: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Night After Night A brand-new record on the way out the door, produced by Jerry Douglas — because nobody else does that. By Jared Ingersol, Generation Country · 8 min read
Album Reviews ALBUM REVIEW: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy The record where the band finally sounded like itself — named for a real old man and his singing dog, carrying 'Mr. Bojangles' and the blueprint for the Circle. By Jared Ingersol, Generation Country · 7 min read
Album Reviews UNDERHEARD: Matraca Berg - Sunday Morning to Saturday Night In 1997 Matraca Berg put five songs at No. 1, won Song of the Year, and made the album of her life. Within six months her label was dead and the record buried with it. She kept the best ones for herself — and it is not too late to hear her sing them. By Jared Ingersol, Generation Country · 18 min read
Album Reviews ALBUM REVIEW: Matraca Berg - The Dreaming Fields Fourteen years after Nashville buried her masterpiece, Matraca Berg took her songs back — and turned in the record Harlan Howard assigned. By Jared Ingersol, Generation Country · 16 min read
The Dirt Band Edition ALBUM REVIEW: Hanna-McEuen - Hanna McEuen First cousins, sons of identical twins, singing a blend no producer could fake. They made one album, and the label dissolved underneath it before the charts got past 38. Twenty years on, it turns out it was an audition, and the family band heard it. By Jared Ingersol, Generation Country · 9 min read